Myanmar Review May Boost Suu Kyi Leadership Bid: Southeast Asia

Former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi is ineligible to become head of state because the constitution says the president and two vice presidents can’t have a child who is the citizen of a foreign country. Photographer: SeongJoon Cho/Bloomberg

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Myanmar’s parliament plans to
review the 2008 military-drafted constitution, a move that may
allow former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi to become
president after elections in two years.

Shwe Mann, the speaker of parliament’s lower house and No.
3 in the former military junta, on March 15 called for a
commission to recommend changes to the constitution. Suu Kyi,
67, is ineligible to become head of state because the
constitution says the president and two vice presidents can’t
have a child who is the citizen of a foreign country.

“They could as a gesture change part of the restriction on
Suu Kyi,” said Derek Tonkin, former British ambassador to
Thailand, Vietnam and Laos and chairman of Network Myanmar,
which promotes reconciliation in the country. “I find it very
interesting because there’s no need for them to amend it at this
particular point. Someone has taken the initiative and clearly
it comes from the top.”

Suu Kyi has strengthened ties with the military since
joining parliament last year as she pushes for a constitutional
change that would allow her to lead the country of 64 million
people. President Thein Sein’s shift to democracy since 2010
elections held while Suu Kyi was detained prompted the U.S. and
European Union to ease sanctions, attracting companies such as
Google Inc., General Electric Co. and Norway’s Telenor ASA.

Shwe Mann proposed that a commission of legal experts and
experienced people review the constitution, according to a
statement published on parliament’s website. He mentioned no
specific clauses to be amended.

Speedy Changes

“Though the 2008 constitution was drafted with goodwill to
include every aspect, there are laws that are not in accordance
with the present day due to speedy political changes,” Shwe
Mann said. “It is strongly assumed that these facts should be
reviewed in accordance with the time and situation.”

Myanmar’s constitution was approved by 92 percent of voters
in a 2008 referendum that New York-based Human Rights Watch
called a “sham”. The vote was held eight months after soldiers
killed at least 20 people in quelling pro-democracy street
protests led by Buddhist monks known as the Saffron Revolution.

The constitution automatically grants the military a
quarter of seats in parliament. Since amendments need more than
75 percent of votes to pass, the military effectively can veto
any changes. Amendments to certain sections, including the one
that bars Suu Kyi from the presidency, also need a referendum.

The review is not aimed at any one person and should
include measures to produce peace with armed ethnic groups,
according to Win Oo, a member of Thein Sein’s ruling Union
Solidarity and Development Party.

Before 2015

“We will review the whole constitution section by section
and check which sections should be amended,” Win Oo, who sits
on a parliamentary committee for legal affairs, said by phone.
“We will do it before 2015. We will try to make the
constitution to be a better one.”

Ethnic minority parties will propose changes that grant
their constituencies more power and money, according to Aye
Maung, a lawmaker with the Rakhine Nationalities Development
Party. Thein Sein is pushing to reach a cease-fire with the
Kachin Independence Organization, one of more than 30 armed
ethnic minority groups that have resisted central government
control since Myanmar gained independence from Britain in 1948.

Australia announced today that it will boost defense ties
and increase aid and trade links with Myanmar, while maintaining
an arms embargo. Thein Sein is making the first visit to
Australia by a Myanmar leader since 1974.

“I am here in part to display the changes that have taken
place and ask for your country’s kind support and assistance in
making our transition to peace, democracy and prosperity,”
Thein Sein said in Canberra. “I hope you will appreciate that
what we are undertaking has no parallel in modern times.”

‘Negotiated Compromise’

Suu Kyi in January said she was “fond” of the military
and called for a “negotiated compromise” to amend the
constitution. Her father General Aung San helped found the army
in the 1940s when he led troops in a revolt against Japanese
occupiers. He was assassinated in 1947, when Suu Kyi was two
years old. More than 20 years later, she married Englishman
Michael Aris and had two boys who are British citizens.

This month Suu Kyi, a Nobel Peace prize winner who spent 15
years under house arrest, was named chairwoman of her National
League for Democracy party. It expects a victory in 2015
elections after winning 43 of 44 seats in by-elections last
year, which may give its lawmakers enough votes to elect the
president.

Mine Protest

Known as “The Lady” in Myanmar, Suu Kyi faced criticism
this week from local villagers after a parliamentary committee
she headed said a copper mine in the country’s northwest should
proceed even after residents held protests over pollution and
land seizures. The project is a joint venture between military-owned Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. and a subsidiary
of Norinco International Cooperation Ltd., a Chinese defense
company.

Myanmar’s economy may grow 6.3 percent in the fiscal year
ending March 31, up from 5.5 percent a year earlier, and growth
may reach about 7 percent over the next five years if reforms
continue, the International Monetary Fund said in a January
report. Google Inc. Chairman Eric Schmidt plans to visit the
country this month as it prepares to award telecommunications
licenses and allow foreign banks to set up joint ventures.

The NLD has called for amending 12 constitutional clauses,
including the qualifications of the president and the allocation
of 25 percent of parliamentary seats to the military. The party
welcomes the constitutional review and is “cautiously
optimistic,” party spokesman Ohn Kyaing said by phone.

“It is the very beginning stage,” he said. “The
constitution should be amended before 2015, otherwise the 2015
elections based on the 2008 constitution would not be free and
fair.”